Exceptional oval gold snuffbox (750‰) with chased... Lot 11

Exceptional oval gold snuffbox (750‰) with chased and guilloche decoration in neoclassical style, the lid opening by a hinge on the shorter length is entirely inlaid with an oval cameo on sardony with three layers on a black background, depicting a head of a laureate Julio-Claudian emperor in a bust in right profile, dressed in a cuirass and paludamentum, made according to the technique of intaglio relevato with a white fillet on the border. Two cracks on the left side. Goldsmith Johann Wilhelm KEIBEL (born in 1788, active from 1812 to 1862). Russia, St. Petersburg, circa 1820-1830. No title or city mark, as was the case for the Tsar's gifts. The gold lining of the bottom stamped Keibel, the inner border of the lid engraved with the order number 216. The cameo 16th-17th century. ET hallmark. Cameo: Height: 7.9 cm - Width: 6.7 cm Snuffbox: Height: 2.1 cm - Width: 8.5 cm - Depth: 7.5 cm Gross weight: 160.4 g History: The objects supplied by the Imperial Cabinet were neither hallmarked nor subject to control, only an engraved number, that of the order, appeared. It is known that there were gifts from the Cabinet of the Russian Emperor without the presence of imperial emblems, mainly rings and snuffboxes (see work consulted below). Bibliography: Ulla TILLANDER-GODENHIELM, The Russian Imperial Award System, Helsinki, 2005, pp. 221-227. Related works: A similar cameo featuring Trajan the laureate, circa 110 AD, in a 17th century mounting, former collection of King Louis XIV, is in the Cabinet des Médailles et Antiques of the B.N.F. (inv. Cameo.289). A gold and enamel snuffbox by KEIBEL dated 1826, inlaid with a cameo on agate with the profiles of the tsar Alexander I and his wife made by G. GIROMETTI, is preserved in the Kremlin museum in Moscow (inv. MP- 642). Two comparable cameos on sardony depicting two emperors, one of whom is Marcus Aurelius (the other also unidentified), dated from the second half of the 16th century, are kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New-York (inv. 38.150.12 and 38.150.15)